Description
Book SynopsisFor some, recycling is a big business; for others a moralised way of engaging with the world. But, for many, this is a dangerous way of earning a living. With scrap now being the largest export category from the US to China, the sheer scale of this global trade has not yet been clearly identified or analysed. Combining fine-grained ethnographic analysis with overviews of international material flows, Economies of Recycling radically changes the way we understand global and local economies as well as the new social relations and identities created by recycling processes. Following global material chains, this groundbreaking book reveals astonishing connections between persons, households, cities and global regions as objects are reworked, taken to pieces and traded. With case studies from Africa, Latin America, South Asia, China, the former Soviet Union, North America and Europe, this timely collection debunks common linear understandings of production, exchange and consumption and argues for a complete re-evaluation of North-South economic relationships.
Trade ReviewIn this superb collection, what had been dismissed as mere waste or simple recycling is found to be immensely productive in the creation of a second tranche of commodities, complex labour relations, new global linkages, the creation of value and highly sophisticated analysis and theory. Only from this point can debate on these topics be genuinely called informed. * Daniel Miller, Professor of Material Culture, University College London *
Garbage dumps in Rio, textile recycling in northern India, mountains of discarded IT equipment in China, global circulations of uranium: this remarkable collection really lifts the lid on the global sociologies, politics and geographies of waste and recycling - in their widest possible sense. The result is an unprecedented richness in understanding how the recycled use of all manner of materials work to sustain large swathes of our world and why this matters fundamentally for our planet's future. A genuine Tour de Force! * Stephen Graham, Professor of Cities and Society, Newcastle University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Catherine Alexander and Joshua Reno Section One: Global waste flows 1. Shoddy rags and relief blankets: perceptions of textile recycling in north India - Lucy Norris 2. Death, the Phoenix and Pandora: transforming things and values in Bangladesh - Mike Crang, Ni cky Gregson, Farid Ahamed, Raihana Ferdous and Nasreen Akhter 3. One cycle to bind them all? Geographies of nuclearity in the uranium fuel cycle - Romain Garcier 4. The shadow of the global network: e-waste flows to China - Xin Tong, Jici Wang Section Two: The ethics of waste labour 5. Devaluing the dirty work: gendered trash work in participatory Dakar - Rosalind Fredericks 6. Stitching curtains, grinding plastic: social and material transformation in Buenos Aires - Karen Ann Faulk 7. Trash ties: urban politics, economic crisis and Rio de Janeiro's garbage dump - Kathleen M. Millar 8. Sympathy and its boundaries: necropolitics, labour and waste on the Hooghly river - Laura Bear Section Three: Traces of former lives 9. 'No junk for Jesus': redemptive economies and value conversions in Lutheran medical aid - Britt Halvorson 10. Evident excess: material deposits and narcotics surveillance in the USA - Joshua Reno 11. Remont: works in progress - Catherine Alexander Afterword - David Graeber
